Preserve Our Parks to Hold Public Town Hall Meeting in Tosa on July 10

Preserve Our Parks, a local non-profit watchdog advocacy group, announced today that it will hold the third in a summer-long series of public town hall meetings aimed at generating grassroots support for increased funding for Milwaukee County Parks.

The next town hall will be held in the Firefly Room at the Wauwatosa Public Library, 7635 W. North Ave., at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. The town hall meeting will include a brief presentation by Preserve Our Parks board members followed by comments from the public.

Preserve Our Parks will also circulate petitions seeking increased support for parks. The petitions “demand that our elected leaders establish stable, secure, sustainable funding dedicated for support of public parks.” The petition also states opposition to placing parking meters in parks and opposition to privatization of the parks.

Previous town halls have been held at South Shore Park and Brown Deer Park. POP is attempting to gather support from all corners of Milwaukee County.

“We’ve all heard the term ‘emerald necklace’ when we talk about our parks, but we haven’t been talking about the deferred maintenance and the general disrepair of facilities in Milwaukee County Parks,” said Jim Goulee, President of Preserve Our Parks. “Our parks are nearing crisis, and we need to have a public conversation to discuss problems in the parks and to demand that they are solved in a way that keeps the parks usable, free and open.”

Pat Jursik, a board member of Preserve Our Parks, said that budget-writers and policy-makers have been negligent when it comes to parks. She said the parks budget has declined significantly, leading to deteriorating trails, broken equipment and facilities in disrepair.

“We invite the public to join us in a frank discussion of the needs of our free and open Milwaukee County Parks,” Jursik said. “It’s up to the public to raise their voices and demand that our parks are properly maintained and cared for. We must keep our parks free and accessible to the public, and we as citizens of Milwaukee County must remind our elected officials how we deeply value our parks.”

Goulee said it was especially important to develop a grassroots movement as County officials begin considering the budget for 2019. “We’ve built a stadium and an arena with taxpayer money and now it’s our turn,” Goulee said. “It’s our turn to have parks properly funded.”

Preserve Our Parks is a non-profit citizen action and watchdog group passionately devoted to the preservation, maintenance and enhancement of Milwaukee County’s beautiful emerald  necklace. Founded in 1999, Preserve Our Parks is committed to attaining dedicated funding for parks to reverse the course of decline and neglect that has taken place over several decades. Preserve Our Parks actively seeks to make our parks preservation a high priority for County and state policy-makers, and it strongly opposes the sale or any conveyance that restricts the use and enjoyment of our free public parks.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.